Elena Litchman

MSU Research Foundation Professor of Aquatic Ecology

Ph. D. University of Minnesota

W. K. Kellogg Biological Station
Michigan State University
Hickory Corners, MI 49060
Phone: (269) 671-671-2338
Fax: (269) 671-2351
Email: litchman@msu.edu

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Short bio

Elena Litchman is an MSU Research Foundation Professor at Michigan State University. She received her undergraduate degree from Moscow State University, Russia and a Ph.D. in Ecology from University of Minnesota.

Dr. Litchman is an ecologist interested in community assembly, resilience, and eco-evolutionary responses of environmental and host-associated microbiomes to changing environments, including anthropogenic global change, and the consequences of community changes for biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functioning. She pioneered trait-based approaches to phytoplankton, aquatic microbial primary producers of global importance for productivity and water quality and has been extending those approaches to other microbial systems. She works on a wide range of systems, from freshwater lakes, to oceans, gut microbiota and algal synthetic communities. She uses experiments, field work, data analyses and models to investigate fundamental and applied questions in ecology and environmental science, from physiological to planetary scale.

She received the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) and the Petersen Foundation Excellence Professorship Award from the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, Germany. She is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the NSF CAREER Award, and is an ASLO Fellow and an Ecological Society of America Fellow.

Selected Publications

Litchman E. 2025. Climate change effects on the human gut microbiome: complex mechanisms and global inequities. The Lancet Planetary Health 9: E134-E144.

Wickman J, E Litchman, CA Klausmeier. 2024. Eco-evolutionary emergence of macroecological scaling in plankton communities. Science 383: 777-782.

Litchman E, S Villéger, L Zinger, J-C Auguet, W Thuiller, NJB Kraft, F Munoz, L Philippot, C Violle. 2024. Refocusing the microbial rare biosphere concept through a functional lens. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 39: 923-936.

Litchman E and MK Thomas. 2023. Are we underestimating the ecological and evolutionary effects of warming? Interactions with other drivers may exacerbate species vulnerability to high temperatures. Oikos 2023: e09155.

Litchman E. 2023. Understanding and predicting harmful algal blooms in a changing climate: a trait-based framework. Limnology and Oceanography Letters 8: 229-246.

Wollrab S, L Izmest’eva, SE Hampton, EA Silow, E Litchman and CA Klausmeier. 2021. Climate change-driven regime shifts in a planktonic food web. American Naturalist. doi.org/10.1086/712813.

Guittar J, T Koffel, A Shade, CA Klausmeier and E Litchman. 2021. Resource competition and host feedbacks underlie regime shifts in gut microbiota. American Naturalist. doi.org/10.1086/714527.

Van de Waal D and E Litchman. 2020. Multiple global change stressor effects on phytoplankton nutrient acquisition in a future ocean. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 275: 20190706.

Aranguren-Gassis M, CT Kremer, CA Klausmeier and E Litchman. 2019. Nitrogen limitation inhibits marine diatom adaptation to high temperatures. Ecology Letters 22: 1860-1869.

Guittar J, A Shade and E Litchman. 2019. Trait-based succession and community assembly of the infant gut microbiome. Nature Communications 10: 512.

O’Donnell DR, E Johnson, C Hamman, CT Kremer, CA Klausmeier and E Litchman. 2018. Rapid thermal adaptation in a marine diatom reveals constraints and trade-offs. Global Change Biology 24: 4554-4565.

Edwards KF, CT Kremer, ET Miller, MM Osmond, E Litchman and CA Klausmeier. 2018. Evolutionarily stable communities: a framework for understanding the role of trait evolution in the maintenance of diversity. Ecology Letters 21: 1853-1868.

Thomas MK, M Aranguren-Gassis, CT Kremer, MR Gould, K Anderson, CA Klausmeier and E Litchman. 2017. Temperature-nutrient interactions exacerbate sensitivity to warming in phytoplankton. Global Change Biology 23: 3269–3280.

Safaie A, E Litchman and M.S. Phanikumar. 2017. Evaluating the role of groundwater in circulation and thermal structure of a deep inland lake. Advances in Water Resources 108: 310-327.

Ryan C, MK Thomas and E Litchman. 2017. The effects of phosphorus and temperature on the competitive success of an invasive cyanobacterium. Aquatic Ecology 51:463-472.

O’Donnell DR, P Wilburn, E Silow, LY Yampolsky and E Litchman. 2017. Nitrogen and phosphorus co-limitation of phytoplankton in Lake Baikal, Siberia: insights from the lake survey and nutrient enrichment experiments. Limnology and Oceanography 62: 1383–1392.

Edwards KF, MK Thomas, CA Klausmeier and E Litchman. 2016. Phytoplankton growth and the interaction of light and temperature: a synthesis at the species and community level. Limnology and Oceanography 61: 1232–1244.

Thomas MK, CT Kremer and E Litchman. 2016. Environment and evolutionary history determine the global biogeography of phytoplankton temperature traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 25: 75-86.

Litchman E, KF Edwards and CA Klausmeier. 2015. Microbial resource utilization traits and trade-offs: implications for community structure, functioning and biogeochemical impacts at present and in the future. Frontiers in Microbiology 6: 254. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.00254.

Edwards KF, E Litchman and CA Klausmeier. 2013. Functional traits explain phytoplankton community structure and seasonal dynamics in a marine ecosystem.  Ecology Letters 16: 56-63.

Thomas MK, CT Kremer, CA Klausmeier and E Litchman. 2012. A global pattern of thermal adaptation in marine phytoplankton. Science 338: 1085-1088.

Litchman E. 2010. Invisible invaders: non-pathogenic invasive microbes in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Ecology Letters 13: 1560-1572

Litchman, E., P. de Tezanos Pinto, C.A. Klausmeier, M.K. Thomas and K. Yoshiyama. 2010. Linking traits to species diversity and community structure in phytoplankton. Hydrobiologia 653: 15-38.

De Tezanos Pinto, P. and E. Litchman. 2010. Interactive effects of N:P ratios and light on nitrogen-fixer abundance. Oikos 119: 567-575.

Litchman, E., C.A. Klausmeier and K. Yoshiyama. 2009. Contrasting size evolution in marine and freshwater diatoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 106: 2665-2670.

Litchman, E. and C.A. Klausmeier. 2008. Trait-based community ecology of phytoplankton. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 39: 615-639.

Litchman, E., C.A. Klausmeier, O.M. Schofield and P.G. Falkowski. 2007. The role of functional traits and trade-offs in structuring phytoplankton communities: scaling from cellular to ecosystem level. Ecology Letters 10: 1170-1181.

Litchman, E., C.A. Klausmeier, J.R. Miller, O.M. Schofield and P.G. Falkowski. 2006. Multi-nutrient, multi-group model of present and future oceanic phytoplankton communities. Biogeosciences 3: 585-606.

Klausmeier, C.A., E. Litchman, T. Daufresne and S.A. Levin. 2004. Optimal N:P stoichiometry of phytoplankton. Nature 429: 171-174.